Life These Days. From Teenage Anxiety to Reality TV and the Russians. Not The Worst. Who To Blame? Is It Really That Bad? Peace Can Be Worked Out

NOTE: Most of the items below are my reaction/comments to daily or weekly news. Some are two years ago or so. Hence many need some updating. Some entries are "old" but still significant, I believe, in relation to current news or issues. But if you have questions, I can try to respond. Thanks!

NEWS. "Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety?" Parents, therapists and schools are struggling to figure out whether helping anxious teenagers means protecting them or pushing them to face their fears. Probably because they are confused. The older generations are busy arguing on Facebook, and then these youths read/hear news or listen to teachers, then they go google stuff or go to chat rooms, and there you go. No brainer. Also, we should advise or guide troubled youths with ample time and "real life" attention than continually feed them (internet) links to this and that, fancy meme and that one. Those only confuse them.

NEWS. "What Reality TV Teaches Us About Russia's Influence Campaign." Like a twisted version of the producers of an unscripted TV show, Kremlin-linked trolls used fake personas to provoke very real drama. This is very true but unfortunately those people who haven't stopped sharing links and meme's (supposedly "meant to augment" their partisan politics) refuse to accept. To accept that they've always been fooled. And still, being fooled. One example of a Social Media tactic that actually "worked" (in terms of widening divisions between conservatives and non-conservatives) was the "prayers don't solve crime" thingy that cropped up amidst recent mass shootings. I mean, does this subject even worth 1-minute of talk? People pray, some don't. Period. But people feasted on it like a "novena" is actually an entry in law enforcement eradication. Does "grace before meal" prayer automatically heat up a cold stew? What idiocy. Yet people bit it. (Yes, Putin is laughing.)

I THINK if they take out the word obama in obamacare and trump in trumpcare, for example, and just say healthcare 1 and healthcare 2, arguments and divisiveness will be lessened a bit. You reckon? Then those who know about these issues, really know them, should speak and educate us all about healthcare 1 and healthcare 2. And how things could be worked out in a bipartisan level. Uh huh. "Obama uh huh" or "Trump uh-huh"? 

NOT THE WORST. Trump and Obama people, or Sanders and Clinton people still whining over their loss, should calm down. Barack Obama and Donald Trump aren't really the worst presidents the US ever had. Trump hasn't served a year of his 4 yet so let's see how he performs in totality. Like you, I can't stand how he talks (dating back to his TV days) but I am not and never paid attention to blahblahs. I check data and facts. 
          According to analysts and observers of US politics in years, the three worst American presidents are: James Buchanan, Warren Harding, and Andrew Johnson. Their term/s were in 1800s and 1900s. Johnson (1865-1869) survived impeachment after opposing Reconstruction initiatives including the 14th amendment; Harding (1921-1923) was an ineffectual leader who played poker while his friends plundered the US treasury; and Buchanan (1857-1861) refused to challenge the spread of slavery or the growing bloc of states that became the Confederacy. 

          So maybe people are just imagining stuff. Cost of gasoline is still one of the lowest among nations. Even lower than that in my home country, the Philippines. Out there, it's something beyond $3 a gallon. Tennessee has been enjoying an influx of jobs etcetera. Fact: As of second quarter of the year, 12.4 million Americans worked in manufacturing, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up by about 25,000 jobs from a year prior, and almost a million from early 2010. But it’s still down by about one third, or more than six million jobs. But investments from China, Taiwan, Japan, Russia, and Germany keep on coming, so let's be positive. Saudi Arabia has also been diversifying (from oil) and spreading out investments globally. 
         But if we want an America that is still the sole Master of the Universe, then true, we should be depressed and stressed. Because that isn't going to happen. Uncle Sam and Aunt Samantha simply have to share some pleasures with the global community somehow.

I JUST read a heated exchange in my Homepage that basically revolves around the wild assertion that a president is at fault for all the mass shootings these days. That'd be Donald Trump. Although I don't personally like President Trump, I am just so sick and tired of all the bashing that border in sheer hatred than hard facts. I believe that there are many reasons why people go bonkers and shoot others randomly--and it is not mostly economic (study all mass carnage and serial killings). And it is not Trump's fault either. In fact, there have been more mass shootings under President Obama then the four previous presidents combined?

         Check this out (mostly Mother Jones data from FBI records). Mass Shootings under the Last Five Presidents. [1] Ronald Reagan: 1981-1989 (8 years) 11 mass shootings; George H. W. Bush: 1989-1993 (4 years) 12 mass murders; Bill Clinton: 1993-2001 (8 years) 23 mass murders; George W. Bush: 2001-2009 (8 years) 20 mass murders; Barrack H. Obama: 2009-2015 (in 7th year) 162 mass murders (incidents with 8 or more deaths, 18). Trump assumed office last January. Should we count deaths and then celebrate that he beat Obama on that regard? That'd be insane. 
        Instead of pointing fingers at governments, let us figure things out ourselves. The people or citizenry also has a huge responsibility, I believe, in keeping our community safe. But we are not going there, instead we tend to traverse the contrary, if we continue hitting and blaming the Right (or Left), this president and that president, or their political party and not ours. I can understand the political slurs, coming from frustration, few weeks after the Nov outcome. But this hasn't stopped. It has become so disgusting and boring. And dumb.

         I corrected myself in re data. The US has more guns per capita (than any other country), 112.6. But Venezuela, El Salvador, Swaziland, Guatemala, Jamaica, Brazil, and Colombia ranks a lot higher in terms of gun-related deaths (10). But the scarier part is the US is number 2 in terms of mass shootings behind Yemen which has experienced more than 40 mass shootings per 100 million people, compared to the US which has had less than 30 per the same study size. But then how do we compare the US with Yemen? The one major issue that is bothersome is the fact that the US tends to police the world in every aspect of societal governance, including peace and order and crime-eradication, yet it couldn't really police its own people.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD? Here are the facts (if you care to read, that is). If we set aside partisan dislike of the dominant politics and sheer abhorrence of President Trump, and just turn to facts? No, it's not really that bad. Markets are up and unemployment is down. Although Trump is known to bloat data and exaggerate matters in his press blurbs and tweets, he isn’t wrong about the stock market’s record heights. The Dow Jones industrial average passed the 22,000 mark for the first time in his term, and other market indexes are at or near highs. 

          Meantime, gross domestic product, the primary indicator of a country’s economic health, had expanded at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the second quarter. Truth is, America has somehow gotten over the Recession of 2007-09 ushered by a housing market crash and the failure of several investment banks due to overextended credit and risky mortgages. But credit goes to Obama for fixing a failing economy in his exit; though such a problem jumped up in his term as well. Trump so far keeps it on check. 
          True, US economy hasn't been in heaven as it did in the 1950s and 1980s but it isn't so bad either. There was an explosion of economic growth in the 1980s: GDP grew an average of 3.85 percent annually, the largest peace-time growth in US. history. American millionaires soared from 4,400 in 1980 to more than 63,000 in 1990, a 14-fold increase. But contrary to the claim that the “rich got richer and the poor got poorer” in the 80s, the group which benefited the most from the economic policies of the 1980s were African Americans, who enjoyed the highest percentage wage gain of any group, and who for the first time had a plurality of its members in the middle class. Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush did a fine job with the economy, totally negating Jimmy Carter's relative failure as an economic-minded president. 
          Meanwhile, most of the simmering down of America's economy was due to the advent of China, and the resurgence of Russia and South/Southeast Asia, distributed economic wealth around but that doesn't make Americans one of the poorest in the world. Perhaps two of the more recent hard life in the US happened during the recessions of 1973 and 1981 recession. Lasting 2 years, the quadrupling oil prices by Arab exporters resulted in stagflation (high inflation amid stagnant economic growth) and a stock market crash. This had an impact in the 1981 recession where rising inflation from the 1970s resulted in tightened monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, while regime change in Iran led to rising oil prices. Amid these crosscurrents, the US found itself with falling inflation but rising unemployment by the early 1980s. Yet it didn't take long for the Reagan administration to fix the problem. 

         The US has been through worse economic life in the past: The panics of 1797, 1957, 1873, 1893, and 1907--brought forth by European deflation and a yellow fever epidemic that closed ports, banking failures, stock market crash from a railroad boom and cost of copper etc. And of course the 12 years Great Depression, the worst of times when economic production fell by 50 percent, and unemployment surged to 25 percent.
         Yet despite all these, current-life Americans are still very stressed and problematic. According to the American Psychological Association’s annual Stress in America survey, some 59 percent of Americans believe the country is in the lowest period they can ever remember, including respondents who lived through Pearl Harbor and World War II.
Sixty-three percent of respondents consider the future of the US a source of stress, while 62 percent feel stressed about money and 61 percent about work. And as you might expect, 73 percent of Democrats are worried about the country’s future. But more conservative folks aren’t exactly at ease about America’s path either; 59 percent of Independents and 56 percent of Republicans said they’re stressed too.
         “We’re seeing significant stress transcending party lines,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., the Survey's chief executive officer. “The uncertainty and unpredictability tied to the future of our nation is affecting the health and well-being of many Americans in a way that feels unique to this period in recent history.”

         These elevated stress levels could be having a negative effect on people’s health. Lying awake at night during the previous month is up 5 percent from 2016 to 45 percent, and a third of Americans said stress is causing them to feel nervous, anxious, irritable, angry, or fatigued. Most likely, Americas are on Facebook reading links and memes and anger and fighting. Hence the paranoia of the future. Yet it isn't really that bad. Dig? So chill. 

PEACE CAN BE WORKED OUT. Or just being conscious of the unconscious (social media) peddling of hatred. Facebook, Twitter et al are very helpful tools to unite people via steady and fast communication and sharing of valuable/useful info toward better life and living. But it seems these awesome devices are not veering toward that beautiful end. Still though they serve many positive work. However, I can't help talk/write about social media's impact on current violence or mass shootings out there. Most of these misguided souls are moved or coaxed or blinded by anger or hatred more than they are acting under supervision or control of organized terrorism (such as ISIS, Islamic State, or other terror groups). Most are lone wolves (like this latest one in Manhattan) who seemingly acted alone but motivated or inspired by the bigger hate (eg terrorism) or simply hatred for other people/culture. Hence some attribute their crime/s to or with the larger power when it is very likely that their anger is rooted from very personal woes or frustration/s. 

         According to official sources, the breakdown on the number of deaths caused by individuals of different ideologies, follow: 95 by jihadis (or Islamic militant), 68 by far-right, and eight by black separatist/national/supremacist. A jihadi or "fighter against the enemies of Islam" doesn't necessarily come from where the The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or simply the Islamic State) is mostly based. As per latest data, some 15,000 jihadis joined ISIS in 2013 and 2014 yet the documents analyzed represent approximately (only) 30 percent of those. There are more. The average age of the recruits is 26 or 27 years of age but the ages range from 12 to almost 70 years. Some 400 were aged under 18. The foremost group of nationals was Saudi (579), then Tunisian (559), Moroccan (240), Turkish (212), Egyptian (151) and Russian (141), and quite a number from Europe. 
         Belgium, for example, now has more citizens fighting in Iraq and Syria per capita than any other European country (40 for every million people). In fact, the total number of fighters Belgium has sent overseas (440) is not far behind the numbers of much larger countries like the U.K. and Germany. The next two European countries with the most foreign fighters are equally surprising: Denmark (with 27 fighters for every million people) and Sweden (with 19). I mean, Denmark and Sweden! 

        How do we figure out if one is a jihadi (or terrorist) or not. We can't or it's hard. More so, large-scale violence in the US isn't majority radical Islamist, anyway. Since 9/11, white right-wing terrorists have killed almost twice as many Americans in homegrown attacks than radical Islamists have, according to research by the New America Foundation. Some 48 people were killed by white terrorists, while 26 were killed by radical Islamists, since Sept. 11. The Las Vegas carnage was perpetrated by a seemingly ordinary white gambler with money but with no known hardline political affiliation, for example. 
        The Manhattan perpetrator (or suspect), a native Russian by way of Uzbekistan, is apparently a lone wolf who brandished ISIS adherence. Although it appears that Sayfullo Saipov, 29, had online link/s with people who were subjects of terror investigations via his social media activities, he was not part of a terror cell. His green card came via a government program called the Diversity Visa Lottery, which hands out about 55,000 visas per year. He lived in Ohio before moving to Tampa, Florida. He then moved to Paterson, New Jersey, where he has lived with his wife and three children for several years. The guy also held business licenses for two Ohio-based trucking companies, and worked as an Uber driver, and passed a background check and recorded over 1,400 trips in six months. I mean, Saipov was pretty much an ordinary guy. But we didn't know who are these people he's communicating with and possibly sharing some "news links" and memes? As we don't know exactly where our favorite "political humor" video or poster came from. 

        So how do we know. We don't. That deadly person could be the smiley-faced neighbor with a friendly dog or the dude who delivers your mail or the woman who's behind a retail store counter. Who knows. Anger is not necessarily exploding here and there like a Wolverine rage. These days people implode more than they explode. 
        Yet we could help by being more peaceful than argumentative online. And please before we send out memes like Holocaust is here again or Hitler is back, think again. Hatred is cultivated from a dirt farm of anger. Anger that is not addressed or communicated to/with a pacified community. Anger versus anger doesn't work. But we can start in this universe of a one-click box where we loiter, wander or navigate. Or better be, let us try to know who the person we call "cool" or "humane" or "sweet" are. Meet them in person. And slow down with the one-click sharing. Or can we try not to argue sometimes?

This Life. This Family. This Journey.

THIS ACTIVIST LIFE. There was a time in my life when I kind of supported a Che Guevara-like revolution. Armed struggle. Or a Ho Chi Minh kind of ideological girth. And so I devoted almost 97 percent of my adult life to Leftist ideals. My friends and family could attest to that. But as I evolved, I begin to see within. One government goes out, one comes in. One revolution explodes and when the smokes clear? A new power emerges. On the wayside, deaths. Deaths and an impoverished people. 

          The 1 Percent power and their political cohorts may deliver wreaths to the wake and even a few money to the grieving while media's camera clicks. Little bits of benefits get worked out in Congress. People are temporarily happy. Gut level. Still, Power stays—new face, new coat, new narrative. The song remains the same. Etc etcetera.
          Meanwhile, I never saw myself as a foot soldier. I am not a megaphone dude or I ever was the loudest voice in the plaza of protest. I don't know how to sing in a choir (although I was in school and church choir as a kid). I progressed into the pragmatic thinker who wrote or co-wrote the songs instead. Or manifestoes, tactics and strategies. I planned out and helped strategize a lot of moves in the streets in the `80s and `90s but only because those were interconnected acts of civil disobedience with a realizable outcome. Activism has a goal. People get hurt or killed or tear gassed and drowned in a fog of shit as truncheons flail and bullets fly. Yes, there are “collateral damages” but when “collateral damages” start to pile up and yet change hasn't come, you gotta sit back and think harder. Usher the giant white board. Restrategize. 

          Regroup, connect the dots, and (re)strategize a new plan how to tilt the order from bottom going up. What I did in those years? I wrote grants. I worked with non-government organizations and non-profits that implemented my socialist/Leftist rhetoric to pro-active fruition or concrete output. All pointed to food on the table and roof over heads. I worked with government agencies and political personalities and even sat as a young man in a think-tank that advised a presidential candidate. 
           I maximised my efforts by going beyond print. TV, radio, arts, performance, non-government organizations. I mingled not with just poor families whose dad and mom were on vigil in picketlines—but with the apolitical middle class and the snotty upper rich. I needed money to keep my community advocacy efforts moving so I knocked on doors. More than anything else, as the days succumbed to night, I restudied my white board and pulled out more data and info that I gathered as a journalist and editor. And I did all these while traveling like a madman—far and wide.
          But I am not the guy who will yell in the streets or give you angry recitation. But I don't cry over spilled milk, either. I don't fizzle out terrified with sight of a dragon overhead, and I don't see all darkness in a long tunnel. I make a fire instead and help usher light. At least, that's what I did most of my 58 years of life. 
          More than anything else I save my energy and my resilience if a storm comes around again as I pursue my journey—because no storm or hurricane or whoever President will shut my spirits up. I am cool and good because I am cool and good inside me. I can drink the oil as long as it's the liquid that chases down ramens and paella in my tummy.  With that, I get around—and how I got around. 

ENJOY IT! Three winters ago, while I detained myself for three weeks in a Myrtle Beach hotel suite to finish my book--a young man quizzed me, "What's up with that?" He sort of inferred that I am a some kind of elitist upper class snot enjoying my warm room while he labored to pay his winter heating. Few months ago, another chastised me for "wasting" too much time watching a dozen or so Netflix TV series while she couldn't even afford a TV set or desktop comp. Or there are people who out me for buying/giving gifts or spending too much money on whatever. 
          The common denominator that runs in these "enlightened" souls' vein is--they are stressed out or in a funk. I can feel for those. Many years ago, while I raised my kids, I had to sustain 3 or 4 jobs and slept maybe 4 hours a day. I got so sick that I almost died. My mom and dad insisted that I slow down and they'd take care of my kids--but I maintained that my children are my responsibilities so I had to do what I should do. But blues and funk pervade in life. Many people can't even afford three bottles of beer to enjoy a cool blues band to chill or a futon bed purchased at Goodwill. They have bills to pay. So I am fortunate that I have a family that could pay or afford the blessings that I am enjoying. But then, I don't need to write my life's story and all that drama that comes with it to magnify my point--but can you imagine if there's no ESPN and Netflix and Bywater and Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas? I'd go nuts! That is, if I am not already one. 
          My family works "to death" and then enjoy the fruits of their labor by dancing under a generous sun, paid-up. Nothing is free. I vibe with a mindset that says, just enjoy it. If we can afford fun after the bills, why not? Enjoy blessings at the moment. In all the things that I do in life, I always say, let's get together and enjoy. There must be a way to balance the misery. It is not my fault that I frolicked in Vegas while 35 percent of humanity struggled to put food on the table. My mom used to tell me, "You can never solve the problem of the world. Enjoy America!" I do. 

          Let us enjoy what we have and love the ones we are with. Days from now, it's Halloween. Then Thanksgiving. Christmas. New Year. Valentine's Day. Enjoy! I don't want to be a sour-butt about these. These are only consumerist if we consume it beyond what we can afford. If you can afford a nice candlelit dinner at Limones in downtown with your sweetheart, go for it. We need these sweet rituals. If you can't, then maybe you two can just snuggle up on the couch and watch "When Harry Met Sally" via a DVD, $3.00 Trader Joe's red wine and Aldi hummus. But if still you can't afford this? Uhh I don't know. The full moon may drop some love in the form of a pack of Starburst gummies maybe. Dig? Be happy.

MY family has a considerable enough presence on Facebook. Not just my kids but also my nieces and nephews (although my siblings aren't as active as I do). I read what everybody writes or posts. And I am glad that they don't participate in a lot of high-handed political discussions in here. It's not that it's bad to talk politics. But Facebook banter is different from a community forum or student council deliberation. My kids and immediate family members aren't dumb either. Most are honor students and graduates—cum laudes and scholars even. It seems they just don't see the point of having to argue more than discuss, judge people more than share truths, advocate than educate.

          When I was their age, I was an angry, tormented soul. Angry because societal misery was right before my eyes. These weren't put on YouTube or written in blogs, or discussed on Facebook. It was so hard to be heard. Many times the truths and facts didn't even get to Page 16 of a newspaper. So as journalists we sought out the truth ourselves—thereby risking our life. These days, I feel, is a lot angrier than how it was. Why? Because anger is within, bottled up like a volcano's puke that couldn't let go, so people implode. I see implosion online and sometimes I get lured into that kind of anger again. I get provoked by cryptic words and prejudgments borne out of humanity's new-found courage to speak up from out of the distant confines of their tiny gadgets. And then I wake up. This is not the “anger” that I was familiar with. My anger found refuge in my poetry, fiction, music, art and community organizations. 
          Hence the anger subsided. It wasn't confined in the same comfort of my room, pounding away at my laptop's keys—and the rage bounces back at my face with no resolution or rest. The energy is inward—not outward. It is almost reactionary or reactive. One post, one cuss, one praise. One issue, one protest, one click. We are demobilized by a computer demigod that controls us from within. So instead of letting the fury out in a scream of dissent, we suffer from internal hemorrhage (sic). Fear collides with confusion. Alienation with indifference. We are unable to project our fear on a stage where it could ring out loud and heard. It's all clicks and one-posts and gone. Forgotten on the next click. 
          I am happy that my kids, and other kids and other people, see another side of social media that lightens up the dusk. Our grandchildren's new photos and Cyd The Koolcat's eyes. These cheer the heart and inspire us to create shapes out of our voices, sounds out of our hopes, healing to our wounds. But beyond this tiny gadget—where an audience of 20 or 25 attentively listen as against a “friends list” of 5,000 that is drowned by a thousand of clicks, slipping and sliding away as we refresh our page.
          Let us enjoin the 5,000 out of the Page and over our Wall—and converge once again under a blue sky and clouds that don't come with a USB. 

FATHER and CHILDREN. All my five children possess different at times contrasting reflex and response to life and living. Yet they vibe as one—like a musical band or a jazz quintet. They got their own instruments but they can play in one concert stage and come out awesome. Each mirror my 1001 personalities. It's like, if you can dig all my kids' sensibility and sensitivity, then you can never dig me. Such torment of knowing me, isn't it? One of my kids (who doesn't really enjoy being so social media public) just emailed me an update of her life. She is the independent soul with the ferocity of a wolf. 
          She reiterates, “Never have I, in my many years of studying, failed a class and I don't plan to change that record.” Such virulent confidence exuded in me as I pursued my own journey. Well, she is an Economics cum laude graduate and now in Law school, and will take the Bar this month. But as ever she insists on heading for the jugular on her own terms. “With or without a Law degree, I can be financially independent. It's just that I can help more people with it. I will enhance the power that I already have.” While at work on the legal profession, she also mentions about perennial job offers from high-end financial institutions in the region/Asia. 
         My daughter, since a kid, is a take-charge fireball. Yet like me and her, we also succumb to traditional family pressure/s. Most Filipinos define success as a respectable college degree and a paid-up house. Without those, you still got a whole lot of journeying to do. While many attained the first but not the other and vice versa—my family's fountainhead wisdom has also evolved. My brother doesn't have a college degree compared with my eldest sister—yet both enjoy a very comfortable financial life, with businesses to boot. It's not a black and white world. Bottomline, education and a sweet living situation are still good standards to achieve in life. I will still bat for those. There is not way to intellectualize or philosophize or redefine the basic exigencies of life. Education is school, ownership of a house. Gut reality.

         Moreover, what moves my family and kinship, as I always brag, is no one is left in the gutters or in the hole. We rally as a family. No one fails because such a failure will be pulled out of the murk and so we all party as one. Sometimes my daughter puts so much weight on her heart and shoulder, just like when I was her age, but I know she will overcome. She knows how to have fun and dance with it. She organizes our annual family Christmas reunion. It's just that, like me, after the party—she doesn't waste time hangin' out in a bar for hours getting drunk or be contained and saddened by being single or lonely. It's all good. Life is a blessing. We are never lonely—wherever part of the universe we choose to spend an episode or two of our life's journey.
         My daughter ends her email with, “I'm at peace.” That's what matters. That's all a father needs to hear. 

IN America, I have learned to fit in and “fit out” through the years. When asked, “Where you from?” The auto-response is always, “Asheville.” Usually there's a follow-up query of course. So I courteously reply—then I ask the same based on the person's last name. German. Irish. Italian. Welsh. Polish. French etc. Yet I like it better, 16 years ago, when I first got here in the mountain than these days. Locals asked me where I came from—saying Philippines is all about sharing cultures. Simple and sweet. 

          These days, so-called educated (transplants) people has a problem when I say the Philippines is called the Pearl of the Orient or maybe I eat bizarre food or Catholics back home subjugate their women, how do we cook our chicken etc etcetera. Worse, since I emanated from a religious culture, we voted Trump? (No that Mr Trump is that bad either.) Offensive. Felt like someone's telling me he/she is better than me. With Southern locals, it was easy—I eat the funnel cake and humongous turkey leg and share PBRs and I cook my chicken pork adobo and prepare cucumber vinegar salad. And the clincher? Lynyrd Skynyrd. Simple and sweet. 

REVIEWS/REACTIONS. Logan. John Wick: Chapter 2. Glow, Season 1. In a Valley of Violence. Bloodline.

"LOGAN" (2017), directed by James Mangold. [2] "John Wick: Chapter 2" (2017), directed by Chad Stahelski. Not bad actioners, actually. But obviously the much better one is "Logan," the tenth installment in the X-Men film series, as well as the third Wolverine solo film following "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009) and "The Wolverine" (2013). Old Man Logan (Hugh Jackman), or the aged Wolverine, defends his daughter Laura Kinney (newcomer Dafne Keen) from the villainous Reavers led by Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant) and Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook). 

         "Logan" is a very human superhuman movie, compared with other efforts of the genre, thanks to the intimacy and ferociousness of the chemistry between Jackman and 11-year old Keen, who didn't have to do a lot of talking to ignite fire onscreen. Admittedly, I was near tears at the end of the movie. The fight scenes are swashbuckling but not the "Iron Man" kind, the computer effects not too overblown. The movie managed to skirt away from stereotypes and thus gives us a truly dramatic action cinema. Could be the best superhero movie since several Batman flicks.

"JOHN Wick: Chapter 2" is a neo-noir action thriller. That's it. Great fight scenes as well similar to "The Matrix" but not too much to crow about the plot. This movie fits Keanu Reeves' driftwood dead acting style, as hitman John Wick, who goes on the run after a bounty is placed on his head. The only intimate side of the steely as bullet dude remains his relationship with his nameless dog. The movie also marks the first collaboration between Reeves and Laurence Fishburne since appearing together in "The Matrix" trilogy. Well-choreographed fights, like Hongkong Martial Arts movies of yore, I do love. And "John Wick" (1 and 2) got lots of these.

"GLOW." First season. Netflix. The series revolves around a fictionalization of 1980s syndicated women's professional wrestling circuit, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (or GLOW), which I loved. Admittedly. Yet this series? Not much. I lumbered all through 10 episodes, essentially due to lead actress Alison Brie's grip of her sheer comedic talent, but everything was predictably drained, backstories and characterizations and all. Yet critics praise the show. It received a 96 percent approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes, saying "With spot-on 1980s period detail, knockout writing, and a killer cast, GLOW shines brightly." Really. Entertainment Weekly gave the first season an A rating, calling it "a silly-smart masterpiece, with an ensemble cast entirely made up of breakout characters." It was silly, period. "Masterpiece"? Come on.

"IN a Valley of Violence" (2016), directed by Ti West. Stars Ethan Hawke and John Travolta. Plot: A drifter named Paul and his dog, Abbie, make their way towards Mexico through the desert of the Old West to start a new life. But then they made the random mistake of stopping over in a town called Denton. That's it. Paul had an altercation with the local baddie, the deputy, who then killed Abbie. Damn. You don't kill somebody else's dog. You know what I'm sayin'? Remember John Wick? I'd go berserk myself. You just don't kill somebody else's dog. 
         Yes, simple plot but this simplicity is rendered with understated class you'd be glued all through the excursion. Don't be so misled by the title though. This is not so violent, believe me. Topnotch ensemble acting. Well, Hawke and Travolta. But of course that's expected. And the support cast Taissa Farmiga and James Ransone. Remember them in "American Horror Story" and "The Wire," respectively? 

         "In a Valley of Violence" is fashioned after old spaghetti westerns, opening and end credits and all. But in the absence of a kickass Ennio Morricone soundtrack. No problemo. This apparently low-budget western is stripped of gunslinger whambam in favor of absurdist humor (“You, lay down and sleep. And you, lay down and dream on it!”) and non-stereotyped characterization/s. I mean, the bad guys here are just flawed, bumbling roaches. And the main dude isn't the suave pistolero that you'd expect. So if you got nothing big in the area of weekend movie/s, spare this one some time. Better than political argument on Facebook. 

"BLOODLINE" Season 3 or its final season. Unlike the first two seasons which kept me glued due to tightly-drawn characterization and potent storyline, channeled via exemplary acting (especially Ben Mendelsohn, Kyle Chandler, and of course, Sissy Spacek), the last season was lumbering and slow. I labored through it; torn between simply quitting or hmmm let's see how they'd resolve all the shit. But then that's it? The last frame was oh well what??? 

         This series was created by topnotch guys, Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman, who were also responsible with "Damages" and "The Sopranos," pretty awesome stuff. So they should be great. Yes, the first two seasons, sure. But like other series that simply got stuck on endgame, writers didn't know how to really end it all. In the case of say "Six Feet Under" and "Weeds," writers simply fastforwarded time and boom! Done. In the case of "Bloodline," I think they probably finally realized that they piled up shit so thick they didn't know how to make sense of all the crap later and just get over them. You know what I'm saying? So they left us viewers to hey what do you think? LOL! Okay, done. 

SOME of the movies above are available on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.

First Amendment. Climate Change. Oil. Media. Stuff.

THE First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, ensuring that there is no prohibition on the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.

         Fast forward to 2000s. We do love oh how we love our Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press. Oh yeah! But we don't like people freely exercising their religion. Or it depends on what religion? You are stereotyped as this if your religion is that. If you don't believe in a God then you are cool? I guess, you believe in yourself. Independent thinker. Yup. Sweet. There is Freedom in America, a lot better than what others work around with somewhere. But our Freedoms live and love within the bounds of the Constitution. That is the fact of living in a society such as ours.

         Hence the practice of one's right boils down to Common Sense. Freedom is all about smart thinking. So if someone calls you a Moron, that's Freedom. Then calls you a MoronPremiumPlus+ that's also Freedom. If someone compares you with the most vile human being who ever lived? Freedom. An individual may call that way. But how do I call that personage? Hmmm. I reserve my right to hush. I'd rather write a love poem. It is my right or common sense to ignore morons.

IN 2016, the Department of Defense spent $585 billion, an increase of $1 billion versus 2015. This is a partial measure of all defense-related spending. The military budget of the United States during FY 2014 was approximately $582 billion in expenses for the Department of Defense (DoD), $149 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and $43 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, for a total of $770 billion.

YES. We need to talk about Climate Change. With or without Irma or Harvey. We should keep on writing and talking about Katrina and Sandy. And all the typhoons in the Philippines and tsunamis of the past. Yet many keep on arguing about the larger politics of polar extremes. This time, pointing fingers don't help. Jose is coming. No, he is not Mexican or Filipino. It is hurricane. These mediapeople and politicians need to spend those expensive airtime telling people where to get refuge or shelter, or enjoining people who got resources in excess to share part of their wealth to a calamity fund--instead of arguing about some Cabinet official's not so smart words. Again, there are 8,008,000 millionaires and 631 billionaires in the US. How many in the world? (Google it.) Yet only $2 billlion approved for this calamity drive so far?

MORE rant. Imagine this. All or maybe 75 percent of the globe's billionaires hand calamity victims all over the world $2 billion each annually, at least, no questions asked. With or without calamity. A Global Calamity Fund that keeps on building up each year as the rich keep on getting richer. Do you know that there are 2,043 billionaires in the world? Some 719 in Asia, and 631 in the US and North America? I am not even talking about millionaires. In the US alone, there are 8,008,000 millionaires. Imagine that!

FACT. Plants and factories run on oil. Plants and factories hire people in thousands. But then too much reliance on oil messes up the environment. Catch 22. Any government wouldn't be able to bring plants and factories up, and help stop trade balance by going further south, if environmental standards aren't laxed (and tax subsidies aren't ushered on the table). That's what happened in China (upon WTO membership in 2001) when American and European 1 percent brought plants and factories there. Now Beijing is spreading investments out globally, and “fixing” their environment by putting money on alternative energy. That is why there are factory jobs in the US again. That is why the Cabinet is replete with Climate Deniers. Do I have to explain when EPA was created? At the time of Nixon? Almost at the same time Washington struck a deal with Saudi Arabia for oil diggings (and importation from Canada et al), and US oil decreased production? We consume oil at 20+ percent annually despite slowed diggings in the West Coast. Figure that one out.

TO respond to a friend and elaborate on how immigrants (living in America) feel about US internal issues, whether they are naturalized citizens, visa-holding residents, documented or undocumented illegals. As long as a human being lives in the US, and as long as Washington's foreign policy and trade relations affect them and their families and their home/origin-countries, they have a right to speak their mind. America is still the most powerful nation in the world, irrelevant of China or Russia. Hence, it is due each and everyone to share their political thoughts. It is a global community with the US up there on centerstage. That's a fact that we in the US have to accept and be responsible with. One major reason why I chose to live here. As do other (famous) writers that influenced me. This is the stage to speak up. Hence the more we take responsibility with our rights the more we could espouse peace, and the more our voice will be heard.

PER capita income in the US is still relatively higher than most countries at $57,300. In fact, higher than Australia ($48,800), Germany ($48,200), and yup! higher than Canada ($46,200). And a lot higher than Russia ($26,100) and China ($15,400). Price of gasoline per liter is a lot more expensive in Hongkong, Norway, Netherlands, and the Philippines than in the US. Cost of electric power $/kWh is more expensive in Denmark, Germany and Spain (41 to 30 cents per kWh) than in the US (12 cents). Healthcare may be better in Canada and Taiwan, and even in Russia, but America can't always be the "best in life" or the "most awesome" all the time, you know. We are still cool. The good things we got may still be better. Or bestest. Mostest. Don't worry too much. Smile!

THE Chinese are the scapegoat. If things aren't doing fine, blame the Chinese. It's as though they invaded and colonized America and other countries just like how Queen Isabella ordered Ferds and Christopher to sail and grab some more land or how Alexander The Great and Napoleon ran over natives in some island and built their Twizzler factories there and forced people to speak Mandarin. It's as though they invented globalization or founded WTO. It's as though when products get here these didn't go through scrutiny by non-Chinese quality control and non-Chinese port inspectors. So on and so forth. The thing about the Chinese? We can diss and shame them anytime, yet they will still sell us lo meins with a Jackie Chan smile. And we buy `em because it tastes goodah! Then we say hey lois meinz is French, right? German maybe? Or Minnesota.

COST or price/s of gasoline in the US may not go up due to several reasons. But I think the apt question is, what is too high in terms of the gravity of our consumption (hence amount of supply as per demand)? The most affordable gasoline price in the world is $0.02 per gallon in Venezuela for a people with average daily wage of $16.14. Next is in Kuwait, $0.88 with $68.69 daily wage. Third lowest is US: $2.57 per gallon for daily wage of $156.34.

          Generally, those countries that produce a lot of oil also have relatively low gas prices. But that'd lose meaning when it comes to consumption. The US is the 3rd largest producer of oil (notwithstanding huge imports) yet it consumes a whopping 20+ percent of global consumption. Kuwait is #8 and Venezuela is #10 in production but they're not even close to the top 10 consumers. You might say those two nations are tiny hence they consume less. (Though Venezuela isn't "tiny.") But then Russia and Canada are the world's largest countries (and 1st or 2nd and 4th in oil production) but in terms of consumption, Russia uses only 3.6 percent (5th) and Canada, 2.8 percent (10th).

         Some oil-producing nations, like Norway, which is the world’s 15th-largest oil producer has one of the highest average gas prices: $6.44 a gallon. European countries tend to heavily tax fuel, and as a result, a handful of European countries are among those with the highest fuel prices. Yet except with Germany at #8 (provided Russia isn't Europe), the world's top oil consumers are hardly Europeans. The Netherlands, for one, is #1 in terms of use of bicycle. It's logic. If it's too expensive then the people work things out on the line of alternatives. I was told by friends there that obtaining drivers license in Scandinavian countries are so painstaking.

         I do believe that if America, especially with many factories going East, lessens reliance on fossil fuel, both industry and humanity, it'd help a lot in stalling the horrors of climate change. I do believe that if America, especially with many factories going East, lessens reliance on fossil fuel, both industry and humanity, it'd help a lot in stalling the horrors of climate change. But then can you imagine if cost of gasoline in the US goes up to $6/gallon or around European standards? That'd be the time when followers of Trump, Hillary, and Sanders will be on one spot. Maybe they'd finally agree. Uh huh.

NEWS. "The Democrats' Religion Problem." Secular candidates have a hard time winning the trust of religious voters, says a recent New York Times story. I concur. According to latest studies, some 70.6 percent of American adults identified themselves as Christian, with 56 percent saying religion played a "very important role in their lives," a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation. Meantime, irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30. Yet not enough to swing votes, and if ever they are strong in some states, they are also divided, as what the Nov 2016 attested, as against the traditional religious with a potent mass base.

NEWS COMMENTARY. Observer Moshik Temkin agrees, "Historians Shouldn't Be Pundits." Or pointing at a historical figure (mostly bad ones) to accentuate current bad boy personalities is a bit off kilter. I am referring to all these asymmetrical comparisons that many love to throw out there. You see, comparing Donald Trump to Nixon and Hitler might be good for TV, but bad for history. Or Philippine president Duterte with deposed dictator Marcos, Putin with Stalin etc etcetera. Such a dig on oblique parallelisms (sic) only say many are history-dumb or history-clueless. And it's bad to the young's education. Who wants to read up a 2000-word history on that tiny iPhone? Let's be responsible sometimes.

NEWS. "White House Pushes Military Might Over Humanitarian Aid in Africa." African and American military leaders are uneasy that shifting to a military-heavy presence on the continent could hurt America's long-term interests. Oh well. Meantime, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are planning to propose a defense budget of $640 billion for 2018, a $37 billion increase over the Trump administration's previous $603 billion request. Uh huh.

NEWS. "American Companies Still Make Aluminum. In Iceland." The Trump administration blames China for the decline of aluminum production in the U.S. But where has it really gone? In Iceland. US companies are doing them there, with the Chinese of course. (Iceland signed a free trade agreement with China in 2013.) And BTW, Iceland is the seventh most productive country in the world per capita. And the world's largest electricity (hydroelectric and geothermal power) producer per capita, although 85 percent of their total primary energy supply is derived from domestically produced renewable energy sources. Aluminum, uh huh.

NEWS. "Luxury Cars Offer More Models, but Find Fewer Buyers." Automakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz have failed to expand their market share by offering more variety, joining the industry's overall sales decline. Do you know how much auto companies spend for their research and development programs? BMW spent 1.32 billion euros last year. Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, bankrolled 6.6 billion euros. 1 Euro is 1.13 US Dollar. Highest annual R&D budget, for all businesses, is Volkswagen's $13.5 billion. Toyota (#7 overall), $9.1 billion. More cars also mean more oil. Of course. You know the annual national budget of Ghana? $12 billion. Samoa? $280 million.

THE United States only has 25.8 internet subscribers for every 100 inhabitants. That is lower than the world's top ten most computerized peoples per capita, with 29 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The top ten: Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, South Korea, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Canada. Remember on election time, digital tech or computer reliance were supposed to be integral? So it seemed. We thought the 48 percent of Americans who voted in the last elections were mostly online debating on Facebook? Nope.

NEWS. "Movie Ticket Sales Sagging? Time to Bring Out the Toys." Okay, okay. I don't mean "toys." I mean, Toys. The once-catatonic corner of moviedom dedicated to merchandise has suddenly come alive as studios — walloped by vanishing DVD sales and determined to keep fans engaged between sequels — look at themed toys, clothes and home décor with renewed vigor. That's what I'm talkin' about. Recent revenue from licensed products — Wonder Woman action figures, Harry Potter iPhone cases, Scooby-Doo pajamas — totaled $6.5 billion, an 8 percent increase from previous year. Sell-out, hardsell, commercialization? Those words don't figure anymore. You reckon?

IT is logical and natural or the media to focus on the president of the most powerful country in the world. That's just a fact of journalism in any given time. The issue isn't about a clown or a good one in White House. It is how journalists tackle and treat a news story for the common good (of the people). More info dissemination than opinionated "analysis." Which is the true goal of media or journalism. Meantime, Trump as a clown actually works for him. Isn't it very clear yet that he is a man who savors attention, whatever attention that is, clownish the better? That's where his genius resides. Distraction. It is on the other side of the road. Though many doesn't recognize his brilliance, as though all brilliance/s are saintly, which is a flaw in how we as a people view leadership. Now when I talk like this, some people say I am giving Trump credit which is again a form of ignorance. 

        People these days simply want you on either polar extremes. If you don't hate Trump as they do, you are a pro Trump. Sick thinking! That thinking only makes the situation worse? Why. It widens the divide among people which only benefits powers that continually feast on our vulnerabilities. Anger is a form of vulnerability or weakness. Anger isn't strength especially when it is bottled up (ie online). Anger can be powerful if it is translated in pro active moves out there, as persuasion. A motivation for further study and planning. But anger all the time only puts off people, even those who are supposedly part of the choir. I stopped being angry at governments. They abused that anger to blind me more. I need to strategize and work things out. 

        That's how we help usher change. Maybe many are angry due to personal reasons. I have personal reasons why I should be angry at the government. But me I mine is just a small fragment of a nation. I have to know what others, those who are not my partisan friendships, are thinking too.

OF Presidents and Trump. I don't watch (or listen to) President Trump on TV. I never watched “The Apprentice” at all. I don't hate him. I just don't like him. But I am interested in the man because he is the President of the United States of America. If the president is Conan O'Brien or Kim Kardashian, I will read them as well. As a journalist, I receive full text/s of his speeches and whatever he said or says, as I receive other media feeds from White House Press Office from the time of George W onto Obama. Several numbers everyday, 24/7. I read all those news dispatches and official communication. If you are going to talk to me about America's affairs vis a vis working class and the global community as a voracious anti Trump personage, no go. Save it for someone else. But let's talk about the in's and out's, between-lines and hidden-lines, of whatever his government is doing. I like to learn and I'd like to share what I know or how I think. Don't teach me partisan anger or anger per se. I've been there done than that.